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Chapter 13.


Charlie could hear voices as she slowly began to regain conciousness, she could hear anger in the tone. Her mind was foggy as she tried to register her surroundings. She could feel pain, the insistent throb in her forehead was telling her something wasn’t right. Her arms were stinging and her whole body felt bruised, the loud voices she was hearing weren’t making anything better.

“This is all your fucking fault! I told you to stay away from her and now look what you’ve done! You got her hurt!” Charlie knew that voice, she knew it so well and she hated how desperate and angry it sounded. She wanted to make it better, to make him happy.

“My fault?! I was trying to stop her! I haven’t done anything to hurt her, unlike you! Knocking her up and putting pressure in her life, I don’t think you’ve done anything other than stress her out!”

Mikey… Charlie could pick that voice out of a crowd in an instant. He was upset, Charlie didn’t like that every tone they were using was an angry one. She wanted them both to be happy and stop fighting, her head hurt more with them shouting.

“Oh yeah sure, I’ve hurt her. We made love, I love her!” Devon shouted back. Charlie was torn by his words, she wanted them to stop fighting so badly.

“No you don’t,” Mikey said calmly, “You’ve destroyed her.”

The room was silent, Charlie could hear the sound of a door clicking open then being slammed closed. She tried to make a noise, to get out of the haze of her sleep and hope to get some attention to let them know she was there. She tried to speak, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a strangled groan.

“Charlie?” His soft voice asked calmly. Charlie’s throat was dry, she tried to swallow and make it wet enough for speech, but her brain was still fuzzy. She felt a smooth hand slip into her own, squeezing it lightly. With as much will as she had, Charlie slowly opened her eyes. The task was more difficult than she expected it to be, she winced as she tried to open her right eye fully, but finding out she couldn’t. With her left eye working better then her right Charlie scanned the room, Mikey sitting carefully in a plastic chair next to her bed. She was in a hospital bed, in a hospital. The walls were pasty and the tile floor was grayed, as different scents assaulted her she could distinctly smell the alcohol and anesthetic.

Charlie swallowed again thickly, “Mikey…” She said slowly. Her voice was hoarse probably from lack of use. Charlie let out a soft sigh, sitting her head back against the stiff pillow on the bed. She glanced down at her arms that lay on her stomach, they were covered in scratches and bruises, several bandaged. She lifted a hand to her face, gently feeling it and recognizing the swollen and soreness of a swelled bruise that held her eye shut. How did this happen? She thought to herself. Her mind came up blank, she couldn’t remember how she had gotten into a state like this, it wasn’t her father so how? She glanced over to Mikey in confusion, she remembered him, she remembered Dev and her brother and family and friends and even what she had for lunch that day, how could she not remember how she got thrown in a hospital bed?

“Hey,” Mikey said softly, “Don’t hurt yourself,” he said noticing her confusion and grabbing her hand as she lifted it to her face again. Charlie nodded carefully, Mikey smiled gently at her before taking a loose strand of her hair, twirling it in his fingers for a moment, then tucking it behind her ear. They sat in silence fore a while, just keeping eye contact with each other, Mikey gently squeezing her hand when he felt necessary.

Charlie felt the need to break the silence, she opened her mouth to speak, “My body hurts,” It was the first thing that came to her mind, she didn’t know what else to say.

A small frown formed on Mikey’s face, “That’s weird. They have been giving you meds through this tube thingy,” He said, before flicking at the IV connected to her forearm.

Charlie stared at it with a confused expression on her face; so many questions had formed in her head she didn’t know which ones to start with.

“Mikey, what happened to me?” She asked.

Mikey blinked in surprise, “You mean you don’t remember?” He asked hesitantly.

Charlie quickly racked her brains again for some sort of memory to explain how she got here, but she only remembered being happy with Devon earlier that day.

“No… I’m afraid I don’t,” She said slowly. She watched intently as Mikey’s face visibly paled, was she dying or something? Why couldn’t she remember? And why did Mikey suddenly look so afraid?

Mikey panicked, he didn’t know if that meant that Charlie had permanent brain damage or what, but he knew that something wasn’t right. Quickly Mikey pressed the red call button for a nurse, the button lit up and after a moment of awkward silence between the two a nurse came on the line.

“Yes?” A deep, bored female voice said through the small intercom.

“Uh,” Mikey said leaning closer as if they couldn’t hear him well enough, “She’s awake,” He said carefully, glancing at Charlie and reading her confused face, his throat closed in on itself when he saw the bruises.

“Someone will be in momentarily,” The woman said before the red flashing button went off.

Mikey sat back in his seat, avoiding Charlie’s eyes. As much as he wished it wasn’t true, it had been his fault Charlie got hit by a car. He had hurt her and now every time he looked at her swollen face guilt made his heart twist.

“Mikey, why are you crying?” Charlie asked softly, taking the hand he was holding and beginning to trace his veins with her fingertip. Mikey looked away quickly, not realizing he had started crying. Using his other hand he wiped the tears away.

“I’m not,” he said quietly.

“Oh,” Charlie said as she continued running her fingers along the top of his hand, he let out a soft sigh, it felt really nice. “So your eyes just sprung a leak?”

Mikey looked up in surprised, recognizing Charlie’s playful tone and smiling as he saw the small grin on her face.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “Spontaneous Tear-duction.”

Charlie laughed at his joke, a smile spreading across her face. The smile that made Mikey’s heart start hammering in his chest, but the small wince of pain from the new use of muscles caused her to wince. He almost cried when that didn’t stop her from laughing even more.

“Sounds like you have a worse illness than I do,” She said once she stopped giggling, “Maybe you should be the one in a hospital bed.”

Mikey rolled his eyes, “I highly doubt that one, you got nailed by a moving vehicle, I think you win the worst-off award,” He said without thinking, tensing as he realized what he had just said.

Charlie sat completely still; her smile faded a little bit, “Seriously?” She questioned.

Mikey opened his mouth to apologize, but the stout, salt and pepper haired nurse walked in, her rolling machinery making a racket as it skidded a halt by the end of Charlie’s hospital bed.

“Hi there,” She said smiling warmly at them, “Good to see you awake honey, gave us all quite the scare, didn’t ya?” She said in an Okkie twang.

Mikey smiled at the nurse, she was nice to him when he was shitting his pants about Charlie being knocked out for so long, he appreciated that. He watched carefully as she picked up Charlie’s hand to take her heartbeat count, and then put a thermometer in her mouth gently. Charlie lay limp as they waited for her temperature, the nurse gently brushing back her bangs. Once it beeped she pulled the thin metal tool out of her mouth and read it.

“You’re doing alright, sweetheart, I think you’ll heal up good as knew in a couple weeks!” The nurse smiled happily at her. Charlie nodded, looking from Mikey to the motherly nurse.

“Well honey,” The nurse said turning to Mikey, “Why don’t you go out in the hall with the other gentlemen for a moment? I promise y’all can come back in when I’m done.”

Mikey was reluctant about leaving Charlie, but he did it anyways, squeezing her hand before getting up and going to the hallway.

The nurse let out a small sigh before sitting on the edge of Charlie’s bed, “Honey, I’m going to ask you a few questions a’right?” Charlie nodded, “Sweetie when was your last period?”

Charlie thought a moment, “About a month ago, why?”

“Well honey, when that boy, not the skinny one, but the bigger one. The one who carried you in here, he told us that there’s a chance y’all might be pregnant,” The nurse said, Charlie nodded looking down in her lap. The nurse took her hand, “Y’all know that we can get a pregnancy test for ya? One of the most accurate on the planet.”

Charlie sat still, “It just happened yesterday,” She tried to explain.

“Honey, if you miss your period, take a test. You teenagers all think y’all are invincible, but you need to get over yourselves,” She said wisely, patting her hand like the grandmother Charlie always imagined she would have.

“Thank you,” Charlie said softly.

To her surprise the nurse stood up and laughed, “Oh sweetie, no need to thank me! I’m just your nurse; now how bout we call those boys in and tell them to behave? I could hear them shoutin’ at each other from all the way down the hall, and you’d think they had respect for the other patients,” She said shaking her head before walking over to the door and calling Mikey and Devon in.

Charlie frowned as they walked in, both having the same look of fury written in their faces. The nurse shook her head at them.

“You boys, can’t y’all see your friend needs help? She’s in the hospital for Christ sake and all you two can manage to do is bicker! Now I don’t want to hear another angry word out of either of y’all or I swear on my nursing career I will kick you out of this hospital so fast, it’ll make your heads spin. Are we clear?” She asked sternly, Charlie couldn’t help her smile as Dev and Mikey both shook their heads sheepishly.

The nurse smiled to herself, before patting Charlie’s foot and making her way out.

“Wait!” Mikey called out, suddenly remembering the reason why he even called a nurse in. The nurse stopped, turning on her heel and giving Mikey an expectant look. “She said she can’t remember what happened before her… accident.”

The nurse raised her eyebrows, taking a couple steps back in the room. She examined Charlie a moment before crossing her arms across her chest. “What do you remember, sweetheart?”

Charlie thought a moment: her whole life, pretty much.

“Well everything… except how I got here,” She explained with a shrug of her shoulders.

The nurse nodded, “Well that can happen when you get a head injury, but just to be safe I’ll schedule you an M.R.I,” She said before turning and taking her noisy equipment with her out of the room.

Once the door swung shut, and Charlie’s nurses’ warmth had gone it left the room tense and the air thick. Mikey and Dev both stood awkwardly by Charlie’s bed, neither of them making eye contact with her or each other.

“Okay guys what’s going on?” Charlie asked, breaking the awkward silence between the three.

“Nothing,” The both mumbled in unison. Charlie sighed, laying her head back against the starched pillows and closing her eyes.

“There is obviously something, so you can explain why you’re so pissed at each other,” She said, trying to get them to talk to her. Charlie cracked an eyelid open, Dev was toying with the hem of the blanket that was tucked around her body. Mikey was shuffling awkwardly on his feet.

“You got hit by a car,” Dev said quietly. Charlie carefully lifted her head, Dev kept his eyes down.

“Neither of us could stop it, or you, it all just happened so fast…” Dev explained slowly, “For a second I thought I lost you, you were so still and broken looking. It hurt,” His voice cracked, Charlie’s eyes filled with tears at how much emotion Dev had. He really had feelings for her. Charlie carefully took his hand in hers and brought it to her lips, kissing it gently. Her feelings for Mikey making guilt plague her heart when a tear fell from Dev’s face and onto the mattress. She didn’t know how Devon had fallen for her, how someone so caring loved her.

“It’s alright, I’m going to be okay,” Charlie said softly. Dev took his hand from her and wiped the tears off his face aggressively, angry that he had broke down like that in front of his girlfriend who had just gotten hit by a car. He should be the one comforting her, not the other way around.

Mikey was pissed; of course Devon had said that. He had totally failed to mention the part where he had threatened Mikey to stay away from Charlie. Now all Charlie knew was that a car hit her and her ever so heroic boyfriend took her to the hospital. But what about him? The best friend that called the ambulance and didn’t leave the hospital for three straight hours while Charlie was out cold, not even to get food like her dumb, perfect boyfriend. Oh how Mikey would’ve liked to crush Devon’s skull at the moment.

Mikey was snapped out of his thoughts when Gerard and Frank came into the hospital room, Charlie smiled at the boys as they put flowers and a bag of McDonald’s on the small table next to her bed.

“Thanks guys,” Charlie said opening her arms for Gerard and Frank.

“No problem,” Gerard shrugged after pulling away from her hug, “But to our dismay we had to bring along a Blonde package too.”

Charlie’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before she gasped in surprise as Lauren came bounding in her room, pushing everyone out of her way and throwing herself on Charlie.

“Char! You gave me a frackin’ heart attack! You have no idea how worried I was!” Lauren squealed, before pulling away and sitting on the edge of her bed.

Charlie rolled her eyes, “Oh yeah, everyone seems sooo worried, except for my parents. Aren’t they supposed to be contacted before I even receive care or something?”

Frank raised his hand, “Technically, a hospital has to treat you if you really need it, and I mean they can’t refuse care.”

“And you were unconscious so you needed it,” Dev confirmed.

“So my parents don’t know?” Charlie asked, worry beginning to work its way into her system. What happened to Chris? Did he make it home all right? Oh her parents were going to kill her for not being home with him!

“Oh they do, the hospital got a hold of your mom at work. I’m surprised she hasn’t come here yet, they called like three hours ago,” Dev said. Charlie shrugged; it was probably a good thing her parents weren’t here.

“So when do you think they’ll let you leave?” Lauren asked as she tossed her pretty blonde hair over her shoulder. Mikey rolled his eyes, taking a seat in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs; this conversation could take part without him.

“I don’t know, soon I hope, hospitals are freaky,” Charlie said.

“Can’t leave without a parental signature, kid,” Gerard said. Charlie groaned she hated having to be with her parents in public, which was a rare sight.

“Maybe I’ll escape through a window…” Charlie reasoned.

Dev snorted, “Windows are barred sweetheart, plus jumping from a two story window is only going to land you back here.”

“Good point,” Charlie mumbled, everyone laughed. Except for Mikey, who sat sulking behind the group of people.

Gerard, Frank, and Lauren stayed a while, talking and joking to keep Charlie happy and entertained. When Gerard said they had to get going, Mikey stood also not wanting to stay around anymore. He was planning on going home and calling Scout, his soon-to-be girlfriend or so he hoped. He hoped that it would make Charlie jealous. The reaction he had gotten from her seeing them make out told him that she didn’t like it, so maybe she would actually do something about it and finally be with him instead of Devon. Mikey scowled to himself and walked out of the room before saying goodbye to Charlie.

~~~

Charlie waved bye to Lauren as she was the last one out of the room, laughing softly as Lauren gave her a goofy grin and waved really fast before disappearing from sight. Charlie sighed, letting her body go limp and relax. Dev smiled at her, slowly climbing onto the hospital bed and managing to fit his body next to his girlfriends. Dev traced the side of her jaw gently; the skin there was soft and untouched by the bruises. He carefully lowered his head, touching his lips carefully to the spot before slowly pulling away.

“I love you, Charlie. I’m so sorry this happened to you, it’s all my fault I shouldn’t have let you-“

Charlie lifted her fingers to his mouth, silencing his next words. She took her fingers away, replacing them with her lips. Dev let out a sigh, gently beginning to work his lips against hers.

After a moment Charlie pulled away, “It’s a wonder how you still want to kiss me when I probably look hideous right now.”

Dev smiled wryly at her, “You’ve always been beautiful to me.”


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